Devotion 7 - The Rapture
Devotion 7 – The
Rapture
As regard to Christ’s second coming, it will give us better
clarity if we also divide it into two phases: the first part, His Coming in the
air for the Church - The Rapture; and the second part, His Coming to the earth
for the Jews.
His coming in the Air for His Bride – The
Rapture
1 Thess.4:16-17 – “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus, we shall always be with the Lord.”
“Rapture” is a term generally used to
describe the glorious event in which the dead in Christ will be resurrected and,
together with the living Christians, be caught up to meet Christ in the air.
This means that one generation of Christians will never taste death. They will
be alive on earth and suddenly, in an instant, they will be with Christ in
their immortal bodies.
1 Cor.15:51-52 - “Behold, I
tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the
trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed.”
Paul described the event occurring as ‘in the twinkling of an eye’. It indicates how brief
and exceedingly fast it will take place - almost instantaneous. One moment we
are on earth in our mortal bodies and the next moment, we are with Christ in
the air with a transformed immortal body, a body that will not be subject to sickness,
pain and death anymore.
In Secret
In this phase, it is often described as Christ coming
in ‘secret’ as no one will really know the precise hour of occurrence. The time was not spelled out for us in
prophecy. There would be no pre-signal
given – we only know that it will happen suddenly. We are therefore instructed
to cultivate an attitude of expectancy and of readiness.
Matt.24:36, 42, 44
- “Of that day and hour no one knows…Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour
your Lord is coming…Therefore you also be ready, for
the Son of Man in coming at an hour when you do not expect
Him.”
1 Thess.5:2 – “For you yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.”
2 Pet.3:10 – “But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in which the
heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with
fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned
up”
Because of such nature of the Lord’s coming, we are exhorted
time and again to be watchful and prayerful so that we might not miss the time
of glory. Therefore, let us heed of the exhortation, “let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be
sober” (1Thess
5:6), awaiting with expectancy and “looking for the blessed hope
and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13)
This verse clearly is a reference
to the second coming of Christ. It is blessed because it will be a blessing to
those who are ready, those with joyous anticipation.
The Removal of
the Restrainer
2 Thess.2:7 – “For the mystery of
lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will
do so until He is taken out of the way.”
This
verse indicates that the lawless one (the antichrist) will not revealed until
the one who restrains is taken out of the way. Now and then, we can see some
movement of lawlessness orchestrated by Satan, but somehow that is still being
restrained. However, there will come a time when the ‘restrainer’ is removed to
pave the way for lawlessness to fully break lose.
Who
is this restrainer?
This seems to be the force that somehow exerts a
spiritual influence that is restraining the floodgates of the evil one from
breaking loose. It is likely that this
“Restrainer” refers to the “the
salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”,
that is the Church, that is being empowered by the Holy Spirit.
1 Jn. 4:4 – “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He
who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Only the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit is
greater than the evil forces in the world. When the Church is taken away in the
rapture during phase 1 of the Lord’s return, the floodgates of evil would then
be swung open as widespread deception will come upon the people of the earth,
preparing the way for the Antichrist to manifest.
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